We love the holiday season as much as anyone—we truly do. But we have to address the gingerbread elephant in the room. Every year, the holidays seem to start earlier and earlier. As soon as August, inflatable reindeer are hogging precious shelf space, and pumpkin spice lattes have so tragically cut short the lifespan of those refreshingly fruity summer drinks.

If that wasn’t enough, your feed is overfed with posts about parades, tree lightings, and Santa Clause photo-ops. What is it with this Santa guy and taking pictures? Doesn’t he have enough? The guy delivers a few trillion presents, and all of a sudden, he thinks he’s Tom Cruise. Jump out of your sleigh and save the world in midair, then we’ll wait in line at the mall for an autograph.

This is all to say that, for as jolly as the holidays can be, they can also be a bit exhausting. You need a place where you can take respite from the nonstop holiday rush—a place where you don’t have to think about buying presents for people you barely know, cleaning the house for company, or lugging all those decorations up and down from the attic. With its Texas-sized shopping mall, premium breweries in the Texas Hill Country, and gorgeous hiking trails, San Marcos is the early Christmas present you owe yourself.

 

Get Yourself Something Nice at the San Marcos Outlets

Yes, yes, we said San Marcos was a place where you could escape the Sisyphean task of buying Christmas presents for everyone you may or may not even see this holiday season. But that doesn’t mean you should avoid shopping at all. That would be a textbook case of cutting off the nose to spite the face!

Pamper that face instead by taking it to San Marco’s nationally renowned outlet mall. Why is it nationally renowned, you ask? Only because the San Marcos Outlets is one of the biggest outlet malls in the entire U.S. of A. To put it plainly, it’s a pretty big deal with pretty big deals.

With more than 220 luxury and name brands, you’re sure to find something that tickles your fancy, catches your eye, piques your interest, swings your heartstrings, rattles your wallet—okay, we’re just making up idioms now. What we’re trying to say is that there’s a wide range of stores and styles—everything from Armani to Levi’s to the official Dallas Cowboys Pro Shop to Victoria’s Secret. You’ll even find top-tier home goods stores like Le Creuset and Williams-Sonoma. Between shopping sessions, rest up with a blooming onion at Outback Steakhouse or a juicy burger at Johnny Rockets, or both! You’re an adult! You can do whatever you want!

 

The Hill Country Has Eyes…for Craft Beer

For as long as humans have walked the earth, we’ve sought shelter from the proverbial storm with good company and spirits. What started in the cave moved into the tavern, then into the pub, and then into the dive bar. At last, it has reached its final form with the craft brewery—at least until we can get a jukebox on the moon.  

Until that day, we highly recommend spending time at Middleton Brewing, a 10-barrel brewpub just outside of San Marcos in the majestic Texas Hill Country, which is all the easier to admire from the brewery’s rooftop deck. There are dozens of taps in styles ranging from Belgian to American, as well as a regular rotation of food trucks. They even let you bring your dog, who’s probably a little tired of the holiday rush himself. You can only eat so many candy cane wrappers out of the trash before you get a craving for half-eaten big pretzels.

What’s that? You prefer your craft beer in a big red barn? Hm, oddly specific request, but let’s check the database.

type, type, type

Oh, hey, lookee here, it just so happens San Marcos has exactly that with Roughhouse Brewing! This family-owned brewery, also in the Hill Country, specializes in foeder-fermented ales, traditional lagers, and cave-aged beers. As for the latter, the beers are aged in a real limestone cave that was discovered on the property. Hey, that brings us full circle! Are there caves on the moon where we can age beer and maybe squeeze in a jukebox? We hope someone’s on that.

 

Reclaim All Hope, Ye Who Enter the Purgatory Creek Natural Area

The romantic image of the holiday season involves huddling up to the fireplace, drinking hot chocolate, and watching the snow pile up on the windowsill. It’s a wonderful notion, but let’s not forget we’re in Texas. Fall and winter don’t exist; there’s summer and there’s diet summer. Diet summer is when temperatures plateau at a cool 72, and it’s time to awake from our AC hibernations to venture outdoors.

Without a doubt, the best place to take advantage of diet summer in San Marcos is Purgatory Creek Natural Trail. With its 570 acres of upland meadows, canyon bluffs, dense juniper thickets, and champion oaks, this is one purgatory you wouldn’t mind being stuck in for eternity. Bask in the warm sunshine, feel the reassuring caress of the gentle breeze, and listen to the rhythmic rustle of the trees. It won’t take long before you understand why nature inspired thousands of years of poetry. When was the last time someone wrote a poem about browsing air fryers on Amazon or doomscrolling through Reddit?

Simply follow along any one of Purgatory’s three trails and you may even come across some wildlife! Not the scary kind with the insatiable appetite for picnic baskets and all who carry them, but white-tailed deer and rare birds you can only find in the Texas Hill Country, like the Golden-Cheeked Warbler. What can we say? The bird has good taste.

For first-timers, it’s important to remember that each trail is of varying difficulty. Dante’s Trail is for the most experienced hikers, while Lower Purgatory is the most accessible. Upper Purgatory—somewhere in the middle, difficulty-wise—contains one of the nature center’s most popular sights: the large grotto amongst the limestone cliffs. It’s like something out of a Texan fairy tale. Maybe there’s a talking armadillo that lives inside and slow-cooks brisket while whistling “Whiskey River”! We haven’t personally seen that, but maybe we haven’t believed hard enough.

 

It's a Wonderful Life in San Marcos

It’s the season of giving, but in order to give, you need to take a little time for yourself first. San Marcos is the perfect town to do just that. You can escape the family obligations, the nonstop deluge of singing chipmunks, and the façade that you only watch the Hallmark Christmas movies ironically.

Slide down the chimney straight into our hearts by booking your stay today at one of our beautiful lodgings! We can’t promise there will be warm cookies waiting, but we can promise that your in-laws who won’t let go of the ugly sweater schtick won’t be there!